Tom McKibbin: Northern Ireland golfer wins first DP World Tour title at European Open
- Published
McKibbin was part of a six-way tie for the lead after the third round
European Open final leaderboard |
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-9 T McKibbin (NI) -7 M Kieffer (Ger), M Siem (Ger) and J Guerrier (Fra) -5 Lacroix (Fra) -4 A Bjork (Swe), J Axelsen (Den), J Smith (Eng), D Law (Sco) |
Northern Ireland's Tom McKibbin has won his first DP World Tour title with a two-shot victory at the European Open in Hamburg.
The 20-year-old carded a three-under-par 70 to finish nine under and beat home hopes Maximilian Kieffer and Marcel Siem, with France's Julien Guerrier also finishing on seven under.
McKibbin started the day in a six-way tie for the lead but seized the initiative in the final round with birdies at the fourth, seventh and ninth holes.
A wayward drive at the par-five 11th spelled a bogey and he dropped another shot at the par-four 13th.
He got lucky at the par-five 15th when his second narrowly avoided the water, allowing him to get up and down for a birdie.
The Holywood man closed out the win in style with a birdie at the par-five 18th.
"It's pretty amazing, yes, it's been a good day," McKibbin told Sky Sports.
"I was in a good group with Jordan [Smith] and David [Law] so it was pretty nice. It was just nice to go out there and put a really, really nice round together."
"I've learnt that I am good enough to win. I always thought I was but to prove it today was pretty special.
"I guess I have learnt a lot from failures and missing cuts by a shot and just missing things ever so slightly. So to take all of those things that I have learnt and to put them into play tonight was really nice.
"It will probably not sink in until tomorrow. To have my dad here, he comes most weeks, is pretty special. To win in front of him is pretty amazing."
Tour rookie McKibbin started the week ranked 335th in the world, his previous best finish on the DP World Tour being a tie for 10th.
He graduated from the Challenge Tour in November and had shown signs of form last week with a top-25 finish at the KLM Open in the Netherlands, ending a run of three missed cuts.
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